be earned through our actions is itself a prerequisite to receiving it?”
“That is my meaning precisely—giving up the prideful belief in eternal life as a reward for one’s conduct opens one to the possibility of receiving it. Is this not the point of the story recounted in these very parchments, regarding the man who approached Jesus to ask what he must do to share in eternal life?”
“What do you mean?”
Timothy reached into his trunk for the parchments, and spread them before us. “Here,” he gestured. “Read with me:
‘A man asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus answered, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” At this, the man left in sadness, for he had many possessions.’
Do you understand, Mark? No human is ‘good’ so as to merit eternal life, nor is keeping the commandments enough to result in one’s own salvation. One must instead have faith that God will provide that salvation.”
“But was not this man told to give all his possessions to the poor? That seems to me to refer to actions he needed to take; and if he did, he would be saved.”
“Yet by giving away his worldly goods, would not this man be demonstrating complete faith in and reliance on God, rather than on himself?”
“I suppose that is so.”
“And here, Mark, we see the relation between faith and action. If a man truly believes something, he then will act as though it is true. Our very lives attest to this. If we believe it will be a cold day, we dress for the cold; if we believe that fire burns us, we refrain from touching fire; and so on. Is it not always thus?”
“Undoubtedly.”
“So, if this man had truly believed in Jesus as the way to salvation rather than in his own obedience to the Law, he would have divested himself of his possessions and gone with Jesus, would he not?”
“That follows.”
“Then by his actions, or rather inactions, he demonstrated that he lacked the faith that was necessary to save him, did he not?”
“I would have to agree.”
“And looking closer, his lack of trust in Jesus’ approach to salvation is mirrored by a reluctance to give up what he had accumulated on his own; he wished to continue his self-reliance, to trust in himself rather than to let go of those things and trust completely in God. In a word, we may say his was the sin of pride; do you agree?”
“Yes.”
“So it is in every case where one relies on one’s own efforts. In the end, the sin of pride is always the truly deadly sin. As the Proverb puts it, ‘Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.’ It is precisely what Paul meant when he first wrote: ‘Salvation is yours through faith. This is not of your own doing; it is God’s gift; neither is it a reward for anything you have accomplished, so let no one pride himself on it.’”
“I agree, Timothy. It is pride we must overcome.” I quickly shrugged aside the thought that Timothy might have had me in mind when saying this. More likely, the truth was simply hitting close to home.
“And what is the opposite of pride, Mark? Is it not humility?”
“Yes.”
“And if we have humility, will we not then, and only then, be able to trust completely in God, who alone can bring us to eternal life?”
“Yes, Timothy. I see. So then, the second proposition that must be believed to be true is that salvation is a matter of God’s grace, and not of man’s individual achievement. What is the next?”
“To find the answer, let us look anew at this same passage—at the meaning of Jesus’ admonition that ‘No one is good but God alone.’ If God alone is good and perfect, and man therefore is not, how is the sinful to partake of the good? Must there not be forgiveness of sin in order for man to share in the goodness and perfection of God?”
“That is only logical.”
“And how is sin forgiven? Do not the Scriptures teach that it is by blood, by a sacrifice?”
“That is so; the Book of Leviticus instructs that it is blood shed on the altar that makes atonement for our lives, as blood contains life. But I must confess, I have always found this to be most troubling. To accept that without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sin entails belief in an exacting, vengeful God whose own forgiveness, and therefore whose own love, is conditional. Yet we have been taught that God’s love is unconditional.”
“We have been taught correctly, Mark; but you confuse unconditional love with unconditional forgiveness. All forgiveness must be conditional on something; for if forgiveness were automatic, sin and absence of sin would be of like effect, would they not?”
“I suppose so. But why should forgiveness be conditioned on sacrifice, of all things?”
“Let us consider your question by noting two aspects of the animal sacrifice that is prescribed in Leviticus—the victim’s vicarious bearing of the sins of the offeror, and the offeror’s giving up something of value. What is the symbolic meaning of the first aspect? Is it not to reinforce the notion that death is the penalty for sin?”
“Surely.”
“And is this death penalty not simply God keeping His word, keeping the bargain He made with Adam, that if he disobeys God by eating of the forbidden tree—the metaphor for sin—death will result?”
“I suppose it is.”
“Insisting on fulfilling a bargain cannot be unjust, can it?”
“No.”
“And if God also affords us a means of sparing the true sinner’s life through the vicarious sacrificing of an animal, that justice is tempered with mercy and love as well, is it not?”
“I see your point. God, being just, is not releasing us from our bargain, but He is deeming it satisfied vicariously.”
“Well, temporarily at least; we will come back to that in a moment. But now let us turn to the second aspect of sacrifice, that is, the giving up of something of value. Tell me: when one has wronged his neighbor in some way, is it not justice to require of the wrongdoer some recompense to make his neighbor whole, simply as restitution, and wholly apart from any motive of vengeance or retribution?”
“I agree.”
“And will not that recompense, that restitution, require some giving up of value, some sacrifice on the part of the giver?”
“Certainly.”
“Then once again, to condition forgiveness of sin on sacrifice for that sin may as easily demonstrate
